The Turkey Syndrome
by ChandaK562
Summary: AIleen arrives on Earth in search of a group of alien criminals. Will Kay leave with her and what would make him decide to leave the MiB?
1. Default Chapter

**The Turkey Syndrome**

"Let's see," Zed said as he moved down the line, slowly repeating each agent's letter that morning, "Jay, Kay, Elle, X." he glared at the alien agent. "X get down to the end of the line by Agent Vee where you belong!" He glanced at the line again as X moved off grumbling. Why did that alien have to cause so much trouble? Couldn't Lyndon have found a toleratable alien to be made a field agent? Just then he realized something. Although he had said her letter automatically, Agent Elle was missing from the line.

"Kay, have you seen Elle this morning?" Zed asked as he turned to his best agent.

"No. I'll go and check her room. Maybe she overslept," Kay said as he started of.

"Orion probably knocked her alarm clock off again," Jay said as his partner left. The cat had already pulled that trick once that month.

A few minutes later, Kay was knocking on Elle's door but she didn't answer. "Elle?" he called as he knocked again and then begin to pound when there was still no response. This didn't feel right at all. He backed up a bit and threw himself against the door, hitting it with his shoulder and sending it swinging in with a crack.

He hurried in, calling out Elle's name. Even if she had slept through his knocking, she couldn't have missed the door being broke open. Orion twined around his ankle in greeting but Kay ignored the cat as he searched for Elle. Just then he spotted something, a half eaten sandwich, on the coffee table and as he moved closer, he saw Elle laying there crumpled in a heap on the floor.

'Elle!" he cried as he raced to her side and reached down, gathering her into his arms and frantically shaking her shoulders trying to wake her. She was so cold, like a block of ice in his arms and after a moment, he realized her body was slightly stiff. She wouldn't be waking up. He was several hours to late. He felt tears stinging his eyes as he carefully laid her down and pulled out his communicator.

"Zed, I need a medical team in Elle's room," he whispered.

"What's wrong?"

"She wouldn't answer the door. I had to force it. She's dead."


	2. Chapter 2

Kay looked up as Zealtor came in with a stretcher followed by Zed and Jay. He gathered Elle into his arms and lifted her, carefully laying her on the stretcher, taking an afgan that she had draped across the back of her couch to cover her. She was just so cold. He couldn't stand to leave her like that despite the fact that he knew she couldn't feel cold anymore.

"What happened?" Zed asked Kay as Zealtor went to work scanning the body. He had started to shiver a bit when he entered the room despite his thick jacket.

"No idea. No signs of a struggle and the door was locked from the inside," Kay told Zed as they watched Zealtor work over Elle's body. He had to struggle to keep his voice even, had to struggle to discribe what he had found. He didn't want to remember that scene, wanted to wake up in bed and find that it was all a nightmare. "I found her laying there, looked like she was having a snack before bed. She...." This was so hard. he forced himself to take on a totally dispassionate tone. "The body was already cold and stiff when I found it. Looks like she died sometime during the night." He had thought of stopping by to see Elle, had a case he had wanted her opinion of. Maybe if he had done that, if he had came by instead of deciding to wait until morning, then he would have been able to have helped her.

"At least eight hours ago, would be my guess," Zealtor said with a smile as he looked up from his examination of Elle's body, removing a probe that he had inserted into her. "Her temperature has already dropped to 86."

"86? It feels like minus six in here," Jay muttered as he moved his eyes around the room, looking everywhere but at Elle's body. He just couldn't look at that. "Why's it so cold?"

"New heating policy to save power," Zed murmured. "It's supposed to lower the heat in any room without activity for a certain amount of time." He didn't understand why Elle's room was still so cold though. Kay had been there for awhile. His entrance should have triggered the system to turn the heat up.

"Oh, my," Zealtor said as he started to run a scan of Elle's body. "This isn't good at all!"

"What's wrong? What did you find?" Zed demanded as he came over to the doctor. Elle was a healthy young woman. For her to be dead this fast.... What if they were dealing with something contageous?

"She choked on a bite of sandwich, turkey I believe," Zealtor said with a frown. "And I haven't even begun the autopsy yet! What a disappointment! Oh, well. Maybe I'll find something else interesting when I open her up."

Kay reached out, grabbing the edge of the stretcher to stop Zealtor from taking Elle away as he looked at Zed in a mute appeal for him not to let Zealtor do this.

"No autopsy. You know why she died. That's enough," Zed sternly told Zealtor. "I'll call and make the arrangements for the mortuary to come and pick her up, get her ready for the burial. Jay go with him and keep an eye on her. Someone will be here soon to get her." Zealtor wasn't going to have the pleasure of cutting Elle to pieces if Zed had anything to do with it.


	3. Chapter 3

Kay slowly walked down the hall, heading for his room after having spent the last three hours with Zed at the mortuary making the arrangements for Elle's funeral and burial. This all felt like a dream to him but why couldn't he wake up from it?

"Kay?" he heard a voice call. He turned to find Aileen coming down the hall towards him, a sad expression on her face. What in the world was she doing there? She hadn't contacted him to let him know that she was going to be in the area.

"Kay, I heard about Elle. I'm so sorry. I know she was a good friend," Aileen whispered as she reached out taking his hand.

"She was a good agent," Kay murmured as he looked down, willing himself not to show his emotions, not here in the middle of the hall. "We're all going to miss her."

"Here," Aileen said. She recognized the mask that Kay had put on, how hard he was trying to fight his emotions. She reached out, pushing the door to his room open and leading him in. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not much to say," Kay said as he walked over to the couch and dropped down onto it with Aileen coming over and sitting beside him. "Elle wasn't at rollcall this morning. Zed sent me to check on her. I came in and found her stiff and cold on the floor."

"How did she die?" Aileen asked gently. She hated to see Kay like this. Although he gave no outward signs, she could tell by the look in his eyes how much pain he was in. She reached out and took his hand again. She knew all too well how hard it was to loose someone, remembering what she had felt when her old partner had been killed by the inanimate.

"Choked on a sandwich," Kay murmured as he shook his head. "You know, I was going to stop by to talk to her about a case but I decided to wait until morning. Didn't want to disturb her." He forced down a sob as he thought of it. "If I had just stopped by she would still be here!"

"Kay, you couldn't have known," Aileen told him.

"I should have known! I could have saved her! I knew exactly what to do but.... A lot of good that did her. I was sleeping while she was in her room dying!"

"Kay, this is not your fault!" Aileen said as she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. "If you could have done something to save Elle, I know you would. This is just one of those horrible things that happens sometimes. Please don't blame yourself. I'm sure that isn't what Elle would have wanted."

Kay shook his head, trying to get control again. He knew that Aileen was right but it was still too hard to think of what had happened rationally. He forced his thoughts to turn from Elle. He couldn't deal with that know. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Working a case. Some aliens for the Haradi System raided Arbis a couple of weeks ago. Got a lead that they might be heading here." Aileen told him. If Kay didn't want to talk about Elle right now, she wasn't going to push the issue.

"Haradi? Aren't they...."

"Graverobbers. Right. They did quiet a bit of damage."

"Need some help with this?"

"Kay, I don't know if that's such a good idea right now with what happened to Elle so fresh," Aileen told him.

"I can't just set around here thinking about it. The work will be good," Kay told her with a persuasive look. "So, what data do you have on them? Any patterns to the raids?"

Aileen sat back on the couch with a sigh before beginning to recite what she knew about the Haradi attacks. She still wasn't sure this was a good idea, especially considering the nature of the aliens but how could she turn Kay's offer down? And maybe this would be good for him, keep his mind off of what had happened, keep him from blaming himself.


End file.
